MARQUETTE — A suspected cause of the fire at the Marquette County Landfill Dec. 3 has been determined, landfill officials say.
“It appears that the fire started due to a hot load,” said Marquette County Solid Waste Management Authority Director of Operations Brad Austin. “That means material that’s being delivered to the site was beginning to combust or reacted with other material placed in the landfill.
“That’s just based on the investigation that we’ve done over the last few days. Specifics to who or what, pinpointing that exactly, is a challenge.”
Austin said the landfill receives over 200 tons of refuse per day.
With the exception of a small barn lost in the blaze, Austin said that everything else appears intact and the environmental impact is minimal.
“No major equipment or structures were lost,” he said. “We’ve assessed all of the landfill components, and the investigation indicates there were no damage to any of those major components. The containment systems that we have are all intact.
“Part of the investigation was also making sure that we didn’t have any issues from an environmental concern (standpoint.)”
Fire crews responded to the scene just after 5:30 a.m. Dec. 3 and worked to control the blaze into the late afternoon.
Austin also wants to remind the public that MCSWMA has several recycling programs available and those with questions should contact the authority.
“We’ve got a lot of programs here,” he said. “The focus here lately has been with our single-stream (recycling) program. We always talk about things like household hazardous waste. We have collection options in the summer and battery recycling options here at the facility.
“If anybody has questions about what programs are available, contact the authority, or you can also visit Recycle906.com. That website lays out a lot of the programs we have here that go beyond just curbside recycling.”
To contact the Marquette County Solid Waste Management Authority, call 906-249-4125.
Ryan Spitza can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248. His email address is [email protected].
